Is Samsung riding the crest of a wave with its latest Bada smartphone?

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Currently the Bada app store has about 40,000 apps on offer. That's a far cry from what you get with Android and iOS, but it is on the rise. Moreover, Bada 2.0 includes support for in-app adds. This might encourage more developers to produce software for the platform, as ads are a way of making money out of apps that are distributed for free.

On the Samsung Wave III itself Samsung provides a fair range of apps. We've mentioned many already, but in addition there is the likes of Polaris Office for creating Microsoft Office compatible documents, a neat little memo maker, calendar tool, calculator, and a simple desk clock style interface with is an alternative to the home screen.

There's also a single link that takes you to a good subset of Google apps including Google Maps, gmail and Calendar, which might help build Bada's appeal.

As well as Google Maps there's a built in navigation app of Samsung's. We don't like this as much as Google Maps. It seems slow to download and resolve maps, scrolling around is a little jerky, and while it does offer navigation from point to point and map overlays, including satellite views, it feels clunky and slow to us.